Helena's Flowers[GxG][Sci-Fi][Battle of Troy]

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Heiden
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Completed: Elvine, The Life Threads, Helena's Flowers, Dr. Frank's Build-A-Boyfriend, Beyond the Deep, The Bog's Heart, The Girl With the Gray Hair Awakens, The Far Rings, NB107A
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Helena's Flowers[GxG][Sci-Fi][Battle of Troy]

#1 Post by Heiden »

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Synopsis

Helena of Achaea is said to be the most beautiful woman in the galaxy.


After her elopement with the neighboring Wilusan princess, Achaea declares war on Wilusa resulting in a years-long bloody conflict. As the war is drawing to a close, Helena is escorted back to her rightful place in Achaea. However, something goes wrong and their ship crash lands on a desolate tiny planet, killing everyone on board except for Helena and a single soldier.

Now stranded in the vastness of space with only a strange soldier for company, Helena finds herself thinking about what sort of fate awaits her. And more importantly, does she even have a place to return to?
Screenshots
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This VN contains:
- ~15k word count
- 6 endings
- A gore warning for one of the endings
Team
Concept, Writer, Programmer - Heiden
Backgrounds, Sprite lineart - Reikun
GUI, Sprite coloring - laniessa
Download- For Windows, Mac, and Linux
Questions
1. What ending did you get first?
2. Favorite ending?
3. Did you have any trouble avoiding the bad ending? Accessing the best ending?
4. General thoughts, comments, suggestions?

Hello! We made Helena's Flowers for Yurijam 2015 and we had a lot of fun! We hope you enjoy!
Completed: Elvine (GxB), The Life Threads, Helena's Flowers (GxG)(As Writer, Coder), Dr. Frank's Build-A-Boyfriend (BxB), Beyond the Deep (GxB)(As Artist), The Bog's Heart, The Girl with the Gray Hair Awakens, The Far Rings, NB107A.

All available to play on my itch.io page!

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ketskari
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Re: Helena's Flowers[GxG][Sci-Fi][Battle of Troy]

#2 Post by ketskari »

Downloaded it and played a bit of the beginning, though I plan to play to an ending when I have a chance. It's a really gorgeous game, and I'm already intrigued by the theme. :)

Congrats on the release!

Ina

Re: Helena's Flowers[GxG][Sci-Fi][Battle of Troy]

#3 Post by Ina »

N/A
Last edited by Ina on Mon Jul 12, 2021 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Heiden
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Completed: Elvine, The Life Threads, Helena's Flowers, Dr. Frank's Build-A-Boyfriend, Beyond the Deep, The Bog's Heart, The Girl With the Gray Hair Awakens, The Far Rings, NB107A
Projects: The Town Pages, Kill the Prince?! [Nano 2020]
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Re: Helena's Flowers[GxG][Sci-Fi][Battle of Troy]

#4 Post by Heiden »

@ketskari - Ohh, thank you so much! I hope you'll enjoy the endings! :)

Thank you so much for playing!! :D
Last edited by Heiden on Sun Feb 13, 2022 3:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Completed: Elvine (GxB), The Life Threads, Helena's Flowers (GxG)(As Writer, Coder), Dr. Frank's Build-A-Boyfriend (BxB), Beyond the Deep (GxB)(As Artist), The Bog's Heart, The Girl with the Gray Hair Awakens, The Far Rings, NB107A.

All available to play on my itch.io page!

Ina

Re: Helena's Flowers[GxG][Sci-Fi][Battle of Troy]

#5 Post by Ina »

N/A
Last edited by Ina on Mon Jul 12, 2021 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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noeinan
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Re: Helena's Flowers[GxG][Sci-Fi][Battle of Troy]

#6 Post by noeinan »

Oooh, downloading this to play later! The field of flowers against a starry sky really reminds me of the manga Olympos by Aki. Really gorgeous!
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Skarn
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Re: Helena's Flowers[GxG][Sci-Fi][Battle of Troy]

#7 Post by Skarn »

The Trojan War aftermath. From Helen(a)'s point of view. IN SPACE.

Also, in a universe where everyone is female.

After checking everyone's name on Wikipedia (the mythology geek in me needed to do it), I'm finally ready to review this.

The take on this classical story was interesting, with some fascinating twists (Penelope for example), but also with some passages I found quite strange.
The "flowers" arc looked a lot like Helena's descent into madness. By the end of it, she is aggressive, talking to flowers, refusing to leave a planet where she can only eat the same kind of fruits all year long, which is certainly not healthy at all... Yet, it's treated as some sort of good ending.
However, I enjoyed the bittersweet relationship between the most beautiful woman in the world and the amazon.

The GUI is really polished and beautiful, except for the choices which are strangely bland by comparison (simple rectangles). Also, I didn't understand how the gameplay was supposed to work:
At my first try, I spammed the flower field and got the best flower ending with ease.
Then I spammed the crash site, and got the best Silea ending without difficulty.
Finally, I tried some combinations of both, and ended with the bad ending every time.
Since I supposedly already got the « best » endings, I stopped there, but I'm still curious about the algorithm and the possible endings.

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Heiden
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Completed: Elvine, The Life Threads, Helena's Flowers, Dr. Frank's Build-A-Boyfriend, Beyond the Deep, The Bog's Heart, The Girl With the Gray Hair Awakens, The Far Rings, NB107A
Projects: The Town Pages, Kill the Prince?! [Nano 2020]
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Re: Helena's Flowers[GxG][Sci-Fi][Battle of Troy]

#8 Post by Heiden »

@daikiraikimi -

OOhh, I love Aki's art~ Especially in Olympos~ That's such a compliment! Thank you haha :'D. I'm so blessed to be able to work with Rei and laniessa, they do amazing work.

@Skarn -
Yes the flower ending, I suppose it isn't necessarily a completely 'happy' ending haha. But what she gained in that ending that she was missing in the Silea best ending is that she was able to be alone. Achaea wouldn't have left her alone for very long in the other ending, even with Silea's trips. But yes... she is alone and perhaps even a bit mad. And not eating the best diet haha ;;;
And as for how the game works -
By day 12 you need to have found either the ship piece or the flower fruits. Otherwise, Helena loses hope and kills Silea in a frenzy. And I think there's one 'best' ending you might be missing. Try dividing up your days 10/10. :')
Thank you so much for playing! :DD
Last edited by Heiden on Sun Feb 13, 2022 3:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Completed: Elvine (GxB), The Life Threads, Helena's Flowers (GxG)(As Writer, Coder), Dr. Frank's Build-A-Boyfriend (BxB), Beyond the Deep (GxB)(As Artist), The Bog's Heart, The Girl with the Gray Hair Awakens, The Far Rings, NB107A.

All available to play on my itch.io page!

Ina

Re: Helena's Flowers[GxG][Sci-Fi][Battle of Troy]

#9 Post by Ina »

N/A
Last edited by Ina on Mon Jul 12, 2021 12:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Anne
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Re: Helena's Flowers[GxG][Sci-Fi][Battle of Troy]

#10 Post by Anne »

I actually really liked the flowers ending, somehow it made a lot of sense within the story. I also liked how it told Helena's story and showed her relationships with other people without those people even being there or anything actually happening. Silea's route felt a bit more straightforward. *should try the 50/50 one now*
The idea of Trojan war in space is just fascinating, the art is nice and the GUI is really fitting (except some minor stuff like the already mentioned choices).

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TsukiShima
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Re: Helena's Flowers[GxG][Sci-Fi][Battle of Troy]

#11 Post by TsukiShima »

I've played this, and managed to get 5 out 6 endings there is! I'm not sure if I will go back to get the other one, because I am already satisfied with the game overall!

The art and music fits so well together, I have applause the team for that! Usually, I find it a bit boring especially when there is only 2 characters around, but with this game, I was not disappointed at all.

1. What ending did you get first?
I got the bad ending first, and for a couple of times too. Perhaps because I kept on being late about asking or pushing the question to Silea. That was my own fault.
2. Favorite ending?
I'm going to have to go with Silea's best ending. Simply because we get to know so much about two characters, and we can know the overall stories from there. The flower endings are just fine for me, but I believe it's because of my personal attachment towards Silea that made me favor her endings. I don't really like it when she forces Helena to return and all that sort.
3. Did you have any trouble avoiding the bad ending? Accessing the best ending?
Not at all!
I think the main mistake I kept making is not reading throughly and unsure of the choices I make. After I got how the story moves, right after getting the flower best ending, I knew how to get the others.
4. General thoughts, comments, suggestions?
As I already said, the art was fantastic. I like how the emotions of the sprites are very... wild? Is that the term I'm looking for? I feel that the sprite moved, their expression showed exactly what they are feelings. I love that!

I feel the game is almost professional already, and I understand about the time constraints, but perhaps with more CGs, it can attract the players to go on with the game. Some players may have low attention span (like me) and the same backgrounds made me slightly bore. I felt a little limited during my first few playthrough because I must either go back to check the ship or the flower field.

Other than that, I think this game could get 9/10! Thank you so much for creating such a piece!

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Reikun
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Re: Helena's Flowers[GxG][Sci-Fi][Battle of Troy]

#12 Post by Reikun »

Thank you so much for playing, everybody!!!!! Glad to read everybody's different impressions :)
TsukiShima wrote:4. General thoughts, comments, suggestions?
As I already said, the art was fantastic. I like how the emotions of the sprites are very... wild? Is that the term I'm looking for? I feel that the sprite moved, their expression showed exactly what they are feelings. I love that!

I feel the game is almost professional already, and I understand about the time constraints, but perhaps with more CGs, it can attract the players to go on with the game. Some players may have low attention span (like me) and the same backgrounds made me slightly bore. I felt a little limited during my first few playthrough because I must either go back to check the ship or the flower field.

Other than that, I think this game could get 9/10! Thank you so much for creating such a piece!
Thank you for your kind words!!!! Heiden did an awesome job coding in all the expressions ^o^ I had fun drawing them too. I'm so glad to hear you liked them!!

You're right about having more CGs. It's my fault that we didn't get that many into the game (since I didn't work on the art consistently during the jam, haha);; I hope the CGs we did have were satisfying(?) to get as part of the story! It's definitely something I want to improve on in future games I work on.
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